Georgia Power

Rules Of Thumb For Estimating Energy Costs

Georgia Power bills can seem deeply mysterious, but there are some ways to simplify it. It's been a year since I've looked at this in depth, but I doubt much has changed. Drop a contact card if I'm grossly wrong.

Georgia Power bills list a ton of riders, but the essence is that there is almost no fixed part of the bill; almost all of it is directly linked to your energy use. (This is in stark contrast to natural gas use here in the Atlanta GA area.)

If you are on the standard (default) residential energy plan, if you divide your kilowatt-hours (kWh) by your total, your cost is about

12 cents per kWh

What's that mean? Here's a useful rule of thumb:

1 watt for an entire year (24/7) is about $1.00

You can use this simple rule to estimate all kinds of costs:

A 14-Watt compact fluorescent bulb (CFB) on all year long will cost $14. If it only comes on at dark? $7

A 100-W PC on for 8 hours a day is $33 a year (100/3)

An 0.6 W LED nightlight on when dark will cost 30 cents a year (0.60/2)

Et cetera.

Pretty simple, eh?

You're welcome. Donations accepted but praise is better.

Costs on standard Georgia Power rates are slightly higher in summer, slightly lower in winter.

In the future, I hope to post a precis of Georgia Power's various price plans, and their implications.